Reference is made to commonly assigned copending patent application Ser. No. 09/575,312 filed herewith entitled xe2x80x9cA Method For Issuing Electronic Ticketsxe2x80x9d in the name of Ronald P. Sansone; Ser. No. 09/575,354 filed herewith entitled xe2x80x9cA Method For Issuing Electronic Ticketsxe2x80x9d in the name of Ronald P. Sansone; and Ser. No. 09/575,314 filed herewith entitled xe2x80x9cA Method For Automatically Reading Electronic Ticketsxe2x80x9d in the name of Ronald P. Sansone.
The subject invention relates to a method for printing tickets at remote locations and, more particularly, to printing readable tickets at remote locations.
Tickets such as concert, theater, movie, museum, trade show, airline and sports tickets, etc., are documents having a substantial, intrinsic value which, typically, may be presented by any bearer to gain admittance or exercise an entitlement. Since such tickets may have substantial cash value there, exists a continuing problem of preventing the issuance of fraudulent tickets.
The issuance of many types of tickets, such as theater tickets, is currently controlled by means of controlled supplies (e.g. serialized ticket stock, specially printed ticket stock, etc.) and by allowing tickets to be issued only by controlled, authorized issuers (e.g. ticket agents). Controlled supplies are expensive, difficult to control, and prone to theft or counterfeiting. Typically, one stood in line to purchase a ticket at the place the event was being held or purchased the ticket over the phone from an authorized ticket agent who mailed the ticket to the purchaser.
Currently, ticketing companies are giving purchasers the option of printing their electronic tickets at home, using ordinary paper, a personal computer printer and an Internet connection. One of the problems in allowing people to print tickets at home is to ensure that the tickets are not counterfeit.
Unfortunately, electronic tickets may be produced fraudulently by insiders working at the ticket company by digitally pasting portions of a legitimate ticket on another ticket to produce a fake ticket. Hackers may also go into the ticket company""s data base or listen to the ticket company""s transmissions to produce fraudulent tickets.
This invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by producing a unique number on a ticket that identifies the purchaser of the ticket based upon information obtained about the purchaser and the purchaser""s computer system during the purchase of the ticket. The system will produce an additional unique number that may take the form of a bar code that is printed on the ticket during the production of the ticket. The bar code may be encrypted and related to the printer that printed the ticket. A reader at the location that the ticket is presented for the purchasers entrance reads the bar code that contains information about the printer that printed the ticket and verifies the information contained in the bar code.
The electronic ticket will contain an encrypted bar code that contains information about the personal computer printer that printed the ticket. The foregoing information will be difficult for a forger to obtain. Thus, it will be more difficult to produce fake tickets.